Covid Red zone districts make way for containment zones as states across India push economic activity
States have adopted more flexible strategy to contain coronavirus spread while eying resumption of economic activities in a large area.
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Punjab, West Bengal and Jharkhand have no Covid red districts. Chhattisgarh has just four red zone blocks and Odisha has quarantine centers in Ganjam and Balasore districts as red zones. Haryana has two red districts, Uttar Pradesh five and Madhya Pradesh four.
These are just a few examples of the falling number of red category districts since May 17, when the Centre allowed the states to decide on red, orange and green zones. In fact, several states have disbanded the colour categorization and have opted for more dynamic containment zone declaration, whose number can be changed on a daily basis.
The health ministry provided a formula on the basis of which an area can be declared as a red zone depending on the number of containment zones or clusters in it. Number of containment zones in an area form a cluster and several clusters constitute a red zone. Only districts with more than 200 positive cases should be declared a red district, according to the health ministry’s directive issued on May 16.
In the normal course, the red zones or containment centers or clusters should have increased in the states as the Covid cases have seen the biggest spike since May 17. On Saturday, India had about 1,25,000 Covid cases as compared to about 37,200 on May 1, covering about 550 of the total 736 districts in the country. But, most states have not reported substantial increase in the number of even containment zones as they apparently want to ease restrictions and allow economic activities to return to the normal level.
“We have gone by the Central government rule which allows just a locality or a block to be declared a red zone instead of a district,” explained an official of the Chhattisgarh government, which on Saturday declared only four blocks in the state as red zones. Till last week, four districts in the state were in the red zone defined by the Central government. In these 4 blocks, Chhattisgarh has 44 containment centers, same as on May 17, although the number of Covid cases has increased to 172 from 120, a week ago. “The zones are declared keeping in mind the present situation and the geographical area,” the official said.
On Saturday, Jharkhand placed all 21 districts with Covid cases in orange zones with no district in red zone. The state’s three districts Khunti, Pakur and Sahebgunj, where not a single Covid-19 case has been reported so far, are in the green zone. Ranchi, Garhwa and Hazaribag, which were once red zone districts, have now been converted into orange zones. “Presently the state has no red zone district as none of the 24 districts have reported more than 200 positive cases. Therefore, all 21 affected districts are placed in orange zone and three other districts, which have not reported any positive case so far, are declared green zones,” said state health department’s principal secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni.
Similarly, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have done away with the concept of red, green and orange zones, and have instead adopted the strategy of marking very active, active and dormant clusters. Before May 17, Andhra Pradesh had five red districts --- Kurnool, Krishna, Guntur, Nellore, and Chittoor. In Telangana, six districts – Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Vikarabad, Suryapet, Medchal- Malkajgiri and Warangal (Urban) were in the red zone. Now, Andhra has 341 clusters and Telangana 130.
Andhra Pradesh’s nodal Covid officer, Arja Sreekanth, said clusters that report many fresh cases in the last five days are classified as very active; those which report cases in the last 6 to 14 days are notified as active and those reporting cases only in the last 15 to 28 days are classified as dormant clusters.
The two Telugu speaking states have given powers to district collectors to identify these clusters and implement strict lockdown norms there. “The number of containment clusters keep changing on a day to day basis depending on the increase or decrease in the number of Covid-19 positive cases,” S Subrahmanyam, an official in Andhra’s Covid-19 command control room said.
Kerala has also discontinued the zonal classification and adopted a containment area approach and given the police powers not to allow people in these areas to move out of their houses. In the worst affected areas, triple lockdown is in force, meaning only one entry and exit point to help police to keep a tab on each person who enters or leaves. From May 19, Karnataka did away with the colour categorisation of districts and focused instead on containment zones, which are 126 in the state. At its peak, Karnataka had 273 containment zones. “The number of containment zones is a dynamic number which changes on a daily basis,” said a state health department official, who was not willing to be named.
The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19
In Uttar Pradesh, only five districts — Agra, Meerut, Kanpur, Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad — now fall under red zones, as against 15 before May 17. However, the containment zones have increased from 450 to 708. Principal secretary health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad explained that those districts which do not report a large number of fresh coronavirus infection cases will be automatically categorised as green zones.
Haryana has classified 22 districts as orange zones. Only Sonepat and Faridabad are now red districts. The six parameters on the basis of which fresh evaluation was done by the state government are total number of active cases, active cases per lakh population, doubling rate (calculated over seven days period), case fatality rate, testing ratio (number of tests per lakh population) and sample positivity rate (confirmation rate), officials said. The state has 261 containment zones. Uttarakhand has seven containment centers with no red district now and Himachal has 12 containment zones with Kangra still notified as a red district.
